Summary: The Power of Pull

Review and Analysis of Hagel, Brown and Davison's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782511020241
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Consumer Behaviour
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison's book: `The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion`.

This complete summary of the ideas from John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison's book `The Power of Pull` shows that a profound change is underway in commerce and in society at large. In previous generations, elite planners created goods and services which were then offered to mass markets. Today’s consumers are now starting to cluster more and more around “pull” style platforms, i.e. technologies which allow products and services to be designed, produced and consumed on demand rather than according to a predetermined schedule. In their book, the authors explain how individuals who successfully learn how to harness pull will be able to access enormous resources to generate sizable improvements in performance.

Added-value of this summary:
• Save time
• Understand key concepts
• Expand your knowledge

To learn more, read `The Power of Pull` and discover the key to using `pull` style platforms to generate success.

Summary of The Power Of Pull (John Hagel Iii, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison)

1. What is Pull?

Push was all about forecasting demand and then finding the best and most efficient way to meet that demand using scripted and standardized systems and processes. Pull is a different approach where you allow things to come together in a more unstructured but ultimately better way. Pull works at three levels:

1. Access – With Pull, you find the resources and the people you need as and when you need them.
2. Attract – Pull has the ability to attract people who are just as passionate as you are about something.
3. Achieve – Pull allows you to learn faster and therefore to perform better than would otherwise happen.

To create more value professionally and personally, spend less time stressing over the way the world should work in your opinion and more time putting the three levels of pull into practice.

To understand what Pull is all about, you first have to understand the currently prevailing method of organizing activities and actions – which is Push. Push operates entirely on the basis of one key assumption:

That it is feasible and possible to anticipate and forecast demand for products and services.

Acting on the basis of this assumption, companies work hard to make sure the right people and the right resources are in place appropriately. Therefore:

• Companies build up inventory and get it to distributors so product is available when customers demand it.
• Institutions like universities develop a curriculum based on knowing in advance what sort of education students need and breaking that down into modules and courses.
• Corporations attract and hire the talent they have projected they will need to deliver the desired customer experience, and then make certain they have all the equipment and resources required. They even have five-year plans which set out future demand with spreadsheet precision.
• Movie production companies, cable operators and the television networks spend billions of dollars every year creating programming they hope people will want to see next season or in the coming years.

Push operates on the basis consumers are passive and their needs can be shaped by centralized decision-makers. It’s a top down approach to business with tightly integrated supply chains in order to achieve operational efficiencies. Push suggests resources are fixed and scarce and therefore need to be applied to those areas offering the greatest rate-of-return. There is always a hierarchy involved with Push where those at the top of the organization have the greatest say in what’s happening while those at the bottom of the organization follow carefully developed scripts in order to attain the rewards on offer.

Push is the prevailing economic model because of the industrial revolution and the invention of the steam engine, electricity and automobiles. In the Push paradigm, bigger is always better because you can capture economies of scale to do things more efficiently. Trade liberalization and the opening up of global markets meant Push moved beyond national boundaries very quickly and created such enormous wealth nobody has ever had the audacity to suggest there might be a better way.

However, things are changing – as they always do. The arrival of a new digital business infrastructure on the back of better communications and computer technology is starting to generate a shift in market after market worldwide. Consumers are getting more power by the day and are becoming much smarter about how to use their new power. Power is steadily moving from corporations to individuals which generates some rather interesting points to note:

• This shift is noteworthy because it is riding on the back of exponential advances in computer processing power which are ongoing. Even after forty years of development, the price/performance ratio of microprocessors continues to increase exponentially. When this is combined with the fact the price/performance of optical fiber and digital storage are also improving steadily, it is obvious the emerging digital infrastructure will completely reshape every institution imaginable during the twenty-first-century. The ongoing nature of these improvements also means that change is a constant and nobody has an opportunity to take a deep breath and play catch up.
• Advances in digital technology are reducing entry barriers to industry after industry around the globe. This means competition in every field is intensifying – which is leading to greater instability and uncertainty. Stock prices today are more volatile and consumers are much more fickle in their tastes. It’s harder than ever before to forecast demand with any degree of certainty.
• Tacit knowledge – the know-how of anything – is rapidly becomi...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of The Power Of Pull (John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright